Google Photos is thinking about splitting up media details

Good software design is as much art as science, and more than just being functional, we demand that the best apps offer intuitive, graceful interfaces. After all, even the most powerful software tool in the world will struggle to catch on if it’s just an abject pain to actually use. Developers have managed to hone a sense for what works and what doesn’t over the years, but sometimes you just can’t tell how a new interface is really going to feel until you actually try it. We’re thinking about just this as we check out some in-progress work on Google Photos, and wonder if it’s worth breaking what already works reasonably well.

Google Photos offers a convenient way to manage that mountain of pictures we shoot, and when we’re looking for a little more info about one of those pics, extra details are never far away. Right now, when you view a picture or video in the app’s gallery, you have two ways to access details, either by pulling up from the bottom of the screen, or by tapping the three-dot overflow menu in the top-right corner. Either way, you’ll be presented with the same view, summarizing media details and offering a carousel of additional options, like copying the pic, printing it, or setting it as your wallpaper.

With Google’s new version 7.20.0.736111255 build of Photos on Android, we’ve discovered an alternate interface here. When active, the card we access by pulling up now only shows media details, and removes the horizontal row of additional actions. Instead, those now occupy the screen-top overflow menu.

We’ll concede that the existing interface is redundant, granted, with two ways to do exactly the same thing, but we’re not sure this feels at all like an improvement, either. It made a lot of sense to have all of this in one place, and while this change does remove the need to briefly scroll horizontally to reach some of those extended options in the carousel, hiding them away in the overflow menu makes us more likely to forget they even exist at all.

The old combined details view; the in-progress details-only bottom card; the in-progress media options overflow menu (left to right)

Currently, this new behavior for Google Photos is not publicly accessible, and the changes we’re noticing may only be intended as an internal experiment. But it’s also not inconceivable that we could see Google begin A/B testing this reorganization with actual users soon, and getting some real data on just how well it’s received.

What do you think? Would you welcome this change to Google Photos on your phone? Or is the old way a clearly superior option? Make your case down in the comments.